By Lauren Swanon
Newton Kansan
“Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night” interferes with the routes of U.S. Postal Service carriers, as the creed goes. Nor does time, it seems.
Edna Hiebert, a 90-year-old resident at Kidron Bethel in North Newton, can confirm that. Last week, she received two letters, addressed to her late father, postmarked in 1959.
Brian Sperry, a regional spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service, said there is no record of where the letters were or how they were found.
The first letter turned up at the Walton Post Office on Aug. 19. The letter was addressed to Mr. Jacob G. Hiebert, and postmarked 9 a.m., Aug. 20, 1959, from Norwalk, Calif. Its whereabouts for the past 51 years, almost to the day, are known.
Jacob Hiebert, the intended recipient, passed away in the 1960s.
Officials at the Walton Post Office managed to find his daughter, Edna Hiebert, and delivered the letter to her at Kidron Bethel the day it was received in Walton.
Edna was impressed that they managed to connect her to her father so many years after his death.
“There’s so many Hieberts in Walton living at one time, it isn’t even funny,” she said. In fact, Edna’s husband’s last name was also Hiebert.
In a strange coincidence, the mail carrier who delivered the letter lives in Edna’s former home. She suspects that connection may have helped them find her.
Edna said the letter was from her father’s niece, Florence. It’s actually a get well card, signed “Florence, Bud and family,” with a personal message written inside.
Days later, another letter arrived. This one was postmarked at 3 p.m. Oct. 25 from the same post office in California.
The second letter contains a birthday card with a handwritten note tucked inside and a small black and white photo of Florence, Bud and their four children. The photo is dated 1958.
Each letter has a 4 cent stamp.
Why the letters went missing, where they have been, and why they suddenly turned up are all unanswered questions.
“It showed up in the mail, and we don’t know where it was before,” Sperry said. “An incident like this is rare.” He said no further investigation will be conducted to determine where the letters may have been for half of a century.
Edna suspects the letters may have been undeliverable because her father moved around, staying with the families of his grown children, and was not regularly at any one address during the years around when the letters were sent.
She also said it could have been due to delivery methods used at the time.
“We didn’t have delivery in Walton,” she said.
In the 1950s, she said, each resident in the area had to go to the post office to claim mail, and it is possible her father never picked up the letters. But she’s not entirely convinced the letter has been in Walton this whole time.
“I can’t imagine it being there for 50 years and not being in their way,” Edna said.
It is also possible that the letters were sent to the wrong area within the state. The postmark on the letters predated the use of ZIP codes by 14 years.
Edna said reading the letters was a pleasant bit of nostalgia, although she admits, it’s “nothing new. Nothing that I didn’t know.”
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By Lauren Swanon
Newton Kansan
“Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night” interferes with the routes of U.S. Postal Service carriers, as the creed goes. Nor does time, it seems.
Edna Hiebert, a 90-year-old resident at Kidron Bethel in North Newton, can confirm that. Last week, she received two letters, addressed to her late father, postmarked in 1959.
Brian Sperry, a regional spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service, said there is no record of where the letters were or how they were found.
The first letter turned up at the Walton Post Office on Aug. 19. The letter was addressed to Mr. Jacob G. Hiebert, and postmarked 9 a.m., Aug. 20, 1959, from Norwalk, Calif. Its whereabouts for the past 51 years, almost to the day, are known.
Jacob Hiebert, the intended recipient, passed away in the 1960s.
Officials at the Walton Post Office managed to find his daughter, Edna Hiebert, and delivered the letter to her at Kidron Bethel the day it was received in Walton.
Edna was impressed that they managed to connect her to her father so many years after his death.
“There’s so many Hieberts in Walton living at one time, it isn’t even funny,” she said. In fact, Edna’s husband’s last name was also Hiebert.
In a strange coincidence, the mail carrier who delivered the letter lives in Edna’s former home. She suspects that connection may have helped them find her.
Edna said the letter was from her father’s niece, Florence. It’s actually a get well card, signed “Florence, Bud and family,” with a personal message written inside.
Days later, another letter arrived. This one was postmarked at 3 p.m. Oct. 25 from the same post office in California.
The second letter contains a birthday card with a handwritten note tucked inside and a small black and white photo of Florence, Bud and their four children. The photo is dated 1958.
Each letter has a 4 cent stamp.
Why the letters went missing, where they have been, and why they suddenly turned up are all unanswered questions.
“It showed up in the mail, and we don’t know where it was before,” Sperry said. “An incident like this is rare.” He said no further investigation will be conducted to determine where the letters may have been for half of a century.
Edna suspects the letters may have been undeliverable because her father moved around, staying with the families of his grown children, and was not regularly at any one address during the years around when the letters were sent.
She also said it could have been due to delivery methods used at the time.
“We didn’t have delivery in Walton,” she said.
In the 1950s, she said, each resident in the area had to go to the post office to claim mail, and it is possible her father never picked up the letters. But she’s not entirely convinced the letter has been in Walton this whole time.
“I can’t imagine it being there for 50 years and not being in their way,” Edna said.
It is also possible that the letters were sent to the wrong area within the state. The postmark on the letters predated the use of ZIP codes by 14 years.
Edna said reading the letters was a pleasant bit of nostalgia, although she admits, it’s “nothing new. Nothing that I didn’t know.”
